Fire chaplain recalls watching the attacks unfold and calls for kindness

Father Charles McDermott, the fire chaplain invited to give the invocation, recounted his memory of watching the events of September 11 on television and described the personal shock and subsequent communal response.

"A plane has gone into the World Trade Center... and then I'm watching and I'm seeing... and years ago, the cameras made things far away seem closer," McDermott said, describing how he realized "this is not an accident." He reflected that, in the days after the attacks, "people were kinder to each other" and urged the audience to return to those practices of mutual aid and civility.

McDermott closed with a call to prayer and a reading of the serenity prayer, asking that the community accept what cannot be changed and find the courage to change what can. His invocation tied personal recollection to a broader appeal for continuing respect and compassion in civic life.